Family Struggles For Their Son`s Life

Kathy Minton has watched her son change from an active kid who loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to a child who is clinging to life.

Just three months ago, Brandon Minton was ``a typical 5-year-old,`` his mother said.

``He was bubbly and talkative. He was very independent.``

Now, Brandon is hooked up to intravenous tubes, receiving medication.

He is being treated at a New York hospital for an advanced case of a rare childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.

The aggressive chemotherapy treatments have produced sores in his mouth.

``He doesn`t feel like talking anymore. He just points when he wants something,`` Kathy Minton said.

Even swallowing hurts, so she pours his nutritional supplement into a permanent IV tube inserted into veins in his chest. Brandon`s brown hair fell out due to the treatments. He has lost about seven or eight pounds and now weighs 29 pounds.

Brandon`s mother said his once sparkling blue eyes are glazed from pain medication.

``I feel like I left my little boy in South Florida,`` Kathy Minton said, her voice breaking with emotion. ``He`s just not himself.

``He`s in a lot of pain. He doesn`t understand why we can`t get the bump out of his body.``

The Mintons, who lived in West Palm Beach, were not aware of the cancer in their only child`s body.

Kathy, and Brandon`s father, Randy, learned about the neuroblastoma after taking the child to his pediatrician for his 5-year physical on Aug. 29. The doctor found a lump -- soon diagnosed as a cancerous tumor -- in the adrenal gland above Brandon`s right kidney.

Instead of entering kindergarten as planned, Brandon spent the next two weeks at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

The Mintons, who divorced in March, decided to bring their only child to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan for aggressive chemotherapy and experimental antibody treatments.

The cancer had spread through the bone marrow and is considered to be in its most advanced stage.

Brandon`s pediatric oncologist, Dr. Nai-Kong V. Cheung said even with aggressive treatment, only one out of 10 children survive at this stage.

Brandon`s treatment will include more chemotherapy, surgery to remove the tumor and radiation. If the treatment is successful at that point, Cheung said a bone marrow transplant would be done.

Kathy Minton has been renting a one-bedroom apartment near the hospital for the few days she can take Brandon out of the hospital. But whenever his fever reaches 101.5 Fahrenheit, he must return. Minton said the child has been out of the hospital four days since they arrived on Sept. 11.

``It`s so hard. You kind of go past the pain. I used to be crying all the time, but you just have to do it,`` she said.

Besides the emotional toll, the family must cover medical costs, rent and other expenses.

The Manhattan apartment is $900 a month. She also continues to pay the $750 monthly mortgage payment on her West Palm Beach house.

And the medical expenses continue to climb -- from the two weeks at the Miami hospital to the cost of specialists and treatments in New York.

Kathy Minton left her job as hair salon manager to be with her son.

``If I only have two months or two years with him, I want to spend as much of that time with him,`` she said.

Randy Minton, who is recuperating from hernia surgery in West Palm Beach, said he decided to close his own sportswear design business and find a job in New York to be closer to his son.

``I haven`t seen Brandon in two weeks. It has been the longest two weeks of my life,`` he said.

Friends of the family have set up a fund to cover medical and living expenses, Dee Williams said. Williams, of West Palm Beach, has occasionally cared for Brandon since he was an infant.

``The fund will cover his medical needs, living expenses like the apartment,`` she said. ``Once his needs are met the money will go to research the disease.``

Several fund-raisers, including one that begins today, have been organized.

``I feel so bad for the pain Brandon`s going through. He feels so crummy. And he`s mad at the world right now. He hurts and mom and dad can`t make it better,`` Williams said.

BRANDON AID

FUND-RAISERS FOR BRANDON

-- Brandon Minton`s fund will get a portion of the proceeds from soda sales at the Heritage Festival today through Sunday. The festival is on the South Florida Fairgrounds, Southern Boulevard between the Florida Turnpike and U.S. 441, West Palm Beach. Today 4 p.m. to midnight through Friday; 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Saturday; 11 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.

-- ``A Day in the Park for Brandon`` on Nov. 18 from 10 a.m to 5 p.m., including clowns and live music. A portion of the food and beverage proceeds will go to the fund.